656 Natural History of Nova Scotia. 



to that performed by insects. Like animal substances, some 

 kinds of them are remarkably luminous when in a state of 

 decay ; and it appears to be to them that the phosphorescence 

 of rotten wood is to be ascribed. 



Some persons have considered it strange that our beech 

 hills should so generally have the best soil near the top of the 

 hill ; that it should be of an inferior quality lower down; and 

 that a barren spruce valley or plain should be found at the 

 bottom; as it is certain. that some dead leaves and decayed 

 vegetables must be carried by streams of water into the valley, 

 which can never return any to the hill. But, when we con- 

 sider how often the barren land has had the growth upon it 

 killed by fires, while the beech hill retained its foliage, we 

 shall find reason to conclude that, in the first seasons after fires, 

 while the ground was bare of plants, it must have returned, 

 in an aerial state, to the green hills at least as much as it ever 

 received from them. 



When we consider the provision made for covering, imme- 

 diately, every portion of naked ground with some kind of 

 vegetables, which, by partly excluding the air and light, may 

 prevent the too rapid decomposition and dissipation of the 

 fertile principles of the soil, we shall find reason to doubt the 

 utility of fallowing, especially upon shallow soils. That the 

 practice is very ancient is certain ; but it is also certain that 

 man has, by mismanagement, impoverished some of the finest 

 countries on earth. A green crop, cultivated with the hoe, 

 will destroy weeds, and the eggs of insects, nearly as well as a 

 fallow, without exposing the ground in a naked state for a 

 whole season. 



For a similar reason, it must be for the farmer's interest 

 not to spread his manure over too much ground, but always 

 to make his land rich enough to produce a crop that shall 

 completely shade it. In a state of nature, the ground is al- 

 ways covered with a layer either of turf or vegetable mould. 

 This would seem to point out to us that a top dressing is the 

 proper mode of applying manure to grass, as it must, in that 

 situation, preserve the heat and moisture of the ground more 

 than it would if mixed with the soil. It ought always to be 

 applied at the time when it will be very soon shaded by the 

 grass. From experiments which I have tried, it appeared 

 that it produced the greatest effect when spread at the time 

 the trees began to unfold their leaves, and that there is a loss 

 of one third upon that which is spread in the month of No- 

 vember. A top dressing, applied to plants in a garden when 

 growing, is very useful : it is said to be the only way in which 

 the land is manured in Japan ; and the population of the coun- 



